Using the Iowa Digital Library >> Resources for Instructors >> Lesson Plans >> Mapping Local History
Mapping Local History*
Worksheet: [PDF]
Grade Level: Middle to early high school (Grades 6-10)
Time Required: One fifty minute class period
Standards (National):
NSS-G.K-12.5 Environment and Society:
- Understand how human actions modify the physical environment.
NSS-G.K-12.6 The Uses of Geography:
- Understand how to apply geography to interpret the past.
- Understand how to apply geography to interpret the present and plan for the future.
Source: Education World
Standards (State):
- Understand the use of geographic tools to locate and analyze information about people, places, and environments
- Understand how physical and human characteristics create and define regions
- Understand how human factors and the distribution of resources affect the development of society and the movement of populations
- Understand how physical and human processes shape the earth's surface and major ecosystems
- Understand how human actions modify the environment and how the environment affects humans
- Understand how culture affects the interaction of human populations through time and space
- Understand how cultural factors influence the design of human communities
Inquiry Questions:
1. How has the community geographically changed since its establishment?
2. What economic, geographic, and social factors played a role in the community’s development?
Objectives:
The student will
1. Draw a mental map of the community and compare it to an actual map.
2. Identify specific landmarks on historic maps of the community.
3. Analyze why and how their community has geographically changed.
Materials Required:
1. Mapping Local History worksheet
2. Copies of historic maps found at the Iowa Digital library
Iowa Historic County Atlases
Iowa Aerial Photo Indices
Hixson Plat Map Atlases of Iowa
University of Iowa Campus Maps
3. Reproducible map analysis worksheets can be found at the National Archives website
Prerequisite Knowledge:
1. Basic understanding of the community's geography
2. Knowledge of major landmarks in the community
Procedure:
1. Introduction
a. Have students draw a mental map of the community without aid of other resources. Include significant streets and landmarks.
b. After students are completed, have them compare their mental maps to an accurate map of the community.
2. Analysis of Historic Maps
a. Give students several historic maps of the community, preferably ones that portray different stages of the community’s development, beginning with the earliest maps as well as more recent maps.
b. After analyzing the maps, students should answer the questions on the Mapping Local History worksheet.
c. Answers may be discussed as a class. If possible, compare and contrast your community to other neighboring communities that may have developed for similar or different reasons. (i.e. Des Moines, communities on rivers, farming communities, industrial communities)
d. After students are completed, have them compare their mental maps to an accurate map of the community.
3. Conclusion
a. Have students draw a mental map of the community without aid of the other resources. Include significant streets and landmarks.
b. Students can compare the first and second mental maps to see how many more details they were able to specify.
Assessment:
Assessment will be based on the following:
1.Contribution to class discussion
2. Mapping Local History worksheet
3. Comparison of the first and last mental maps (pre and post testing)
Enrichment/Remediation:
Have students draw a modern map on a copy of an old map so that the community's changes can be documented on one map.
*Written by Sarah Dorpinghaus, University of Iowa Libraries, 2009